(Tribute piece to Governor Cuomo)
Jesus came this morning to my door with his light and grace depositing success, good health, and happiness. Try to relax, he says.
I nod, I feel blessed. He happens to look like Andrew Cuomo, and I find that comforting.
“This whole thing is bringing everyone together, hopefully not literally because that is how corona spreads.”
Like many people in this crisis, I have found the Governor of New York to be a comforting example of leadership. He says things, and I believe them. Almost unquestioningly, probably because when he doesn’t know the answer to a question, he turns to one of his highly educated assistants and asks them.
Tonight he said the weather may be turning…and yet, it is not time yet to throw a frisbee.
You do not have the right, he says, to be cavalier or reckless.
You do not have the right to burden others with your irresponsibility.
We like to think we can control everything, he says.
We like to think we can fix everything.
But we can’t.
In the meantime, he raises the fines for groups gathering in public.
…
The government of New York maintains a motto of Performance, Integrity, and Pride.
The daily briefings of the Governor seem to embody these principles almost comically.
“Now,” he says, “It it time to practice humanity.”
Forget about your Zoom yoga or cooking classes or lessons in investment. Now you are going to practice how to be a human being.
“Yes, we have a problem. Yes, we will overcome it. But let’s find our better selves in doing it.”
…
I suppose part of what makes Governor Cuomo’s addresses so inspiring are that they actually make you consider important things. Aspects of life that extend beyond politics. Love, family, anger, stamina. It’s not just about ventilators and face masks. It’s about being a good person. Being generous, and humble.
“You go to war with what you have,” he says, “Not what you need.”
Now, decades into digital warfare, one can even wonder what that means. How does one win a battle that is not material? How does one win a battle with Nature, with our family, with our foundation?
But at one point things were so simple as two bodies of men lining up on a field, each with their established quantities of infantry and ammunition, and maybe there was the occasion where one side had a distinct lack in comparison to the other. And yet, perhaps that side did in fact succeed. Because they were able to do more with less. That is the aspect of heart that Governor Cuomo activates.
As he puts it;
“The concept people have to get here is that they can’t handle it alone. Period. That is just a fact.”
He brings up family values, as if we were all raised in a family that held such values. Mutuality, cooperation, sharing benefits and burdens. It sounds like something worth aspiring to, even for the cynic. Because, as he says, it is not a religious virus. If you decide to break the rules, and hold a wedding or a funeral, it does not matter if you are Orthodox or atheist, it is quite likely you will trigger an outbreak, to the detriment of your community.
…
He calls it Mathilda’s Law, after his mother. Rather than avoid bringing the crisis home, he brings his mother to the crisis. A real life example of consequence. This is what is at stake – the life of your mother.
As the movie unfolds, he says, you start to understand the story better and better. This is what is happening with us right now. Perhaps some day this will be a script in Hollywood. For now it is real life.
We are beyond our operational capacity, this much is clear. It is necessary to do more that what it was designed to do, and with less. This is our Rogue Wave, and we’ll be damned if we want to survive it. In this crazy system of for-profit health, we need to work together for once, as one system, for all of our benefit.
You call this Cabin Fever, and I recognize the threat. I see the violence, I hear the cracks in the sanity. We are trying to insure domestic tranquility, and for that reason I will make a request –
“Find me a generation that has not faced a great challenge.”
This is our challenge.
This is the Great War Worth Going To, and it is not optional.
His brother is locked in the basement, but you never hit a brother while he’s down. Never hit a brother, when he’s in the basement. His brother is in the basement, already diagnosed with coronavirus. This is the Great Equalizer, indifferent to name or class.
It is only with our individual discipline that we will maintain the social stamina. It is through our unity that we find our unifying wisdom.
“Well, I’m bored,” someone says.
His response, “It’s discipline!“
There are no red or blue states. We are all corona states, and we are all bored.
The “personalities” (and he did not say persons) already having trouble dealing with stress are having more trouble dealing with THIS stress, which is to say, the issue is how to learn to deal with stress effectively.
Whether we want it or not we are shocking the system into working as one.
(It’s like being on EBay bidding on ventilators – FEMA voting against the 50 other states)
“What sense does this make?” — the federal government driving up the costs for the individual states?
Indeed, it doesn’t make sense. We are violating the basic business rules of healthcare, a business that shouldn’t be a business. But necessity is the mother, so if we can help someone else, let’s help them.
Politics be damned in this crisis. We are all soldiers.
Amazon and grocery workers stage protests for being compelled to work despite being sick while the rest of society practices (white collar) social distancing. Nurses protest outside of hospitals for more protective equipment. Meanwhile the virus travels through the prison system and inmates are left holding the phone with a sock. They say they’ve already released many people. One has to wonder how that works. These people were going to continue being incarcerated but now that there is a virus they are left to go free, no longer a threat to society, or at least more of a threat inside than not. Meanwhile, the rest are left for dead.
Meanwhile, other people safely at home are afraid of a permanent governmental takeover of personal and political rights. (In Hong Kong, a 13-year-old girl, who was spotted out at a restaurant wearing a tracking bracelet to monitor those in quarantine, was followed, filmed and subsequently shamed online.)
…
And then there’s my little red squirrel friend. God bless him, braving the window boxes to find the popcorn I left out for him. I was wondering why the oregano was looking more spread out. Now I know. It’s because a squirrel has been sitting on top of it.
We are exhausted. With Coronavirus, it is Us vs. Trump vs. Mother Nature. Let us hope he is just too stupid. Refuses to wear a mask despite the recommendations of his own staff. (Out of vanity? Out of pride?) How ironic is would be if… I shan’t dare say.
So let us dance.
(Now that we are forced to maintain distance, we actually become aware of other people)